Glyphland

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Spartan secondary scalded by sprain! Er. It's a break, actually, and one at a position the Michigan State is already desperately thin at: corner. Projected nickelback Ross Weaver is out for the year. Two true freshmen now back up shaky starters Demond Williams and Greg Cooper. Spartan blogger Rob Visconti -- who's sane, a first for Internet Spartans -- is resigned:

Begin placing your bets as to which current Spartan running back and/or wide receiver will be converted to cornerback and vault into the lead for the "Jaren Hayes Memorial What the Hell am I Doing in the Secondary?" award now.

I've got five bucks on Terry Love.

The aforementioned article also has updates on other Spartan bits. The offense, as expected, is tearing through the defense like Charlie Weis through a six-foot slab of pork; freshman kicker Todd Swenson is 10 of 10 after two scrimmages and has won the starting job.

"As of right now, I committed to going back to school next year. Down the road, you know, we'll see how the cards fall and what's going to happen."

I would not expect Jack-like tenacity next offseason. Hopefully we can get him back for one more year, but that's a nasty quote.

Jarrod Bunch was on Entourage but I don't get HBO so I must refer you to Awful Announcing, which is apparently run by the world's biggest Jarrod Bunch fan. I mean, he watched the Westbrook-Bunch fight.

Rotoworld put together a few NFL teams composed of players from one college, which is a thought exercise everyone goes through at least once per offseason. (Just me? Oh.) There are two separate bricks, one for offense and one for defense.

The articles are a curious mix of accurate NFL evaluations and evidence the author spends Saturdays wastefully. Ignore the comments like "Mike Hart is a poor man's Chris Perry" (er... ok) and "We hear Roger Allison is a potential NFL draftee" (we hear that he's been out of football for over a year) and stick to the NFL stuff.

When you do, you will not be surprised. Team strengths are quarterback, offensive line, and linebacker (Michigan is said to be second in the running for LBU, behind only Miami). Team weaknesses are defensive line and safety (Ernest Shazor starts!).

Michigan finishes fifth in the Tuscaloosa News' rankings of the top football programs. Their system is an amalgam of history and what happened last year. Obviously, last year hurt Michigan badly. Keith Jackson quote:

“There is no doubt this is my favorite place, to see four generations rise up and appreciate it, for the pageantry, the ambiance," said announcer Keith Jackson, who came up with the term “The Big House" for Michigan Stadium. “Michigan has such grandiosity. It has all those All-Americans. You can’t go anywhere without finding a Michigan graduate."